View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review

I enjoyed researching sports results in the 1972 editions of The Record-Review newspaper on Tuesday night in the office. I’m fortunate to have a treasure trove of old newspapers at my fingertips in the office.

Pat Hammond, who was my mother Pauline (Berg) Krautkramer’s typing teacher at Edgar High School, led the Wildcats varsity boys basketball team to a 15-1 record while winning the 1971-72 Marawood Conference championship. Edgar public schools superintendent John Hirvela presented Hammon with the conference title trophy at a school assembly on Feb. 22, 1972.

The Edgar boys basketball team won a big regular season game against Stratford. The Jan. 27, 1972, edition of The Record-Review has a front page story on Edgar’s 60-52 win against the state’s top small school in Stratford. The following is the opening paragraph in the story: “Before an overflow of nearly 1,900 screaming spectators, the Edgar Wildcats staked their claim to the number one place among the small schools in the state by defeating the previously number one rated Stratford Tigers by a score of 60-52. Both teams entered the contest with overall records of 11-0 and 9-0 in conference play. Friday’s victory over Stratford means Edgar now has undisputed possession of first place in the Marawood Conference.”

It just so happens my uncle, Paul Berg, was an integral player on Edgar’s 1971-72 conference championship team. Other key Wildcat players on that team were Randy Wirkus, Corky Untiedt, Mike Schneider and Bill Wiederhoeft.

Edgar ended up winning the playoff regional and then the consolation title of the Wausau East Class B sectional tournament by defeating Amherst 7573. Edgar lost to Crivitz, in the sectional the previous night.

I disovered in the 1972 edition of The Review-Review that Edgar’s 1971-72 wrestling team nipped Marathon 22-21 in a dual match. This season’s Edgar wrestling squad recently edged Marathon, 33-27. The main difference between the 1971-72 and 2019-20 wrestling seasons is there were only 12 weight classes back then compared to 14 now.

Honestly, I wish there were only 12 weight classes in dual matches again because I’m getting tired of the large number of forfeits again this season. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy both the Athens and Edgar wrestling teams beat Auburndale this season.

I do feel for Auburndale head wrestling coach John Karl, however, because the majority of his grapplers who competed on the mat won their bouts. It didn’t matter though because Auburndale’s team still lost its dual matches to Athens and Edgar because it forfeited several weight classes, which gave the Bluejays and Wildcats lots of team points. The conference tournament is this Saturday.